The redrawing affects boundaries of nine districts total: eight Republicans and one Democrat. Rep. Sheila Jones (D-Atlanta), the one Democrat, is unhappy because she didn’t know about the bill until it was being presented to the Reapportionment Committee last Wednesday.

House Bill 515 would move African American voters out of Rich Golick’s (R-Smyrna) and Brian Strickland’s (R-McDonough) districts, while moving in white voters from Jones’ district. Both Golick and Strickland eked out close victories in districts easily won by Hillary Clinton, and clearly fear that their backwards, out-of-touch policies won’t be enough to fairly win re-election.

Jones opposed the map rigging, saying, “As legislators we must all commit to a fair and transparent process,” Jones said. “Both with our colleagues under the Gold Dome and with our constituents. We must never lose sight of the voters.”

Clearly the GOP has lost sight of the voters.

On Friday, the House voted 108-59 to approve the bill, allowing it to meet the “Crossover Day” deadline and pass to the Senate for consideration. Although most bills take weeks or months to reach the House floor, House Bill 515 was voted on just three days after the bill was introduced.

MyAJC’s Legislation Navigator now gives the bill a 78 percent chance of passing. By rigging the voting maps, Georgia Republicans are silencing voters, cheating their way through the election process and changing the rules to keep themselves in power.